© Reuters/Esam Al-Fetori
Britain systematically destroyed documents in colonies that were about to gain independence, declassified Foreign Office files reveal. 'Operation Legacy' saw sensitive documents secretly burnt or dumped to cover up traces of British activities.
The latest National Archives publication made from a collection of 8,800 colonial-era files held by the Foreign Office for decades revealed deliberate document elimination by British authorities in former colonies.
The secret program dubbed 'Operation Legacy' was in force throughout the 1950s and 1960s, in at least 23 countries and territories under British rule that eventually gained independence after WWII. Among others these countries included: Belize, British Guiana, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia and Singapore, Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia and Zimbabwe), Tanzania, and Uganda.
In a telegram from the UK Colonial Office dispatched to British embassies on May 3, 1961, colonial secretary Iain Macleod instructed diplomats to withhold official documents from newly elected independent governments in those countries, and presented general guidance on what to do.
British diplomats were briefed on how exactly they were supposed to get rid of documents that "might embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants (such as police agents or informers)" or "might compromise sources of intelligence", or could be put to 'wrong' use by incoming national authorities.
Comment: What if speaking the truth is paramount to a request to be fired from a position where one has ready access to the minds of the populace? What if, no matter how outraged, the public opinion on what they want to hear from their televisions is ignored or forcibly silenced? What if, what if, what if?